The fight for the 2009 Toro Rosso race seats continued to dominate testing at the Jerez circuit yesterday with potential drivers Sebastien Buemi, Sebastien Bourdais and Takuma Sato continuing to slug it out in a bid to lay down the fastest time.
The battle was won by Buemi with a fastest time of 1:18.073 in sunny and drying conditions, with Sato around half a second behind him on 1:18.601.
Last year’s driver Sebastien Bourdais, who has already revealed how lack of personal sponsorship might hamper his chances of hanging on to his race seat, was the loser in the battle, coming marginally behind Sato on 1:18.673.
Behind them, those with a job already lined up for 2009 continued their work on developing the new aero and KERS systems that will dominate the new racing season.
In fourth place was McLaren’s veteran tester Pedro de la Rosa, running a 2009-spec front wing while Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, testing a modified Ferrari F2008, was fifth.
McLaren race driver Heikki Kovalainen was sixth on the unofficial timesheet followed by Renault’s Fernando Alonso, Williams’ Nico Rosberg in a modified FW30 and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.
Felipe Massa, back in the car for Ferrari, was tenth and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica brought up the rear in 11th place.
Day two test times:
- Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso: 1:18.073 (128 laps)
- Takuma Sato, Toro Rosso: 1:18.601 (38 laps)
- Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso: 1:18.673 (81 laps)
- Pedro de la Rosa, McLaren: 1:19.032 (78 laps)
- Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari: 1:19.334 (89 laps)
- Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren: 1:19.631 (64 laps)
- Fernando Alonso, Renault: 1:19.907 (106 laps)
- Nico Rosberg, Williams: 1:20.309 (102 laps)
- Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber: 1:20.365 (87 laps)
- Felipe Massa, Ferrari: 1:20.490 (27 laps)
- Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber: 1:20.954 (38 laps)